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Domain Queries

This page provides detailed information about querying domain names using the RDAP command line client.

Basic Domain Queries

Simple Domain Lookup

The most common use case is querying information about a specific domain name:

rdap example.com

This command will: - Automatically detect that "example.com" is a domain name - Use the RDAP bootstrap process to find the authoritative server - Display the domain information

Explicit Domain Type Specification

You can explicitly specify the query type to avoid automatic inference:

rdap -t domain example.com

This is useful when the query value might be ambiguous or when you want to ensure domain-specific processing.

A-Label Domain Queries

For internationalized domain names (IDNs) in their ASCII (A-label) form:

rdap -t alabel xn--d1acj3b

Server Targeting Options

The --registry and --registrar flags are used for controlling link following behavior when querying domains:

# Follow links to domain registry information
rdap --registry icann.org

This sets link target parameters to query the registry associated with the domain, with: - Only showing the target information - Minimum link depth: 1 - Maximum link depth: 1

# Follow links to domain registrar information
rdap --registrar icann.org

This sets link target parameters to query the registrar associated with the domain, with: - Link targets: "related" - Only showing the target information - Minimum link depth: 2 - Maximum link depth: 3

Combined with Depth Control

# Follow registrar links with custom depth
rdap --registrar --max-link-depth 5 example.com

# Follow registry links with depth control
rdap --registry --min-link-depth 1 --max-link-depth 2 example.com

Bootstrap Registry Selection

Direct queries to a specific registry using its bootstrap identifier with -b or --base flag:

# Query the .com registry
rdap -b com example.com

# Query the ARIN registry
rdap -b arin 1.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa

# Query the RIPE NCC registry
rdap -b ripe 1.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa

Explicit Server URL

Direct queries to a specific RDAP server with -B or --base-url flag:

rdap -B https://rdap.iana.org com
rdap -B https://rdap.example.net example.com

This bypasses the bootstrap process and sends the query directly to the specified server.

TLD Queries

Query information about a top-level domain itself:

rdap .com
rdap .org
rdap .net

This will query IANA's RDAP server for information about the TLD.